Bare Bones Software to retire TextWrangler in favor of BBEdit

Bare Bones Software recently announced it has halted development of popular — and free — OS X text and code editor TextWrangler in favor of BBEdit, the company's professional-level HTML and text editor.

According to Bare Bones, TextWrangler will no longer be updated to take advantage of future versions of Apple's macOS. The software should continue to function as intended, barring future macOS features or security protections that break compatibility with the text editor.

Bare Bone suggests current TextWrangler users upgrade to BBEdit 11.6, a version of the company's HTML editor that includes many of the same features as TextWrangler, plus a few additions. Released last July, version 11.6 can be used for free without a license, the company says.

What you may not know is that last July, we released BBEdit 11.6. You can use this version unlicensed, forever, for free. Without a license, BBEdit now includes all of the features that TextWrangler offers, plus quite a few others. That's right. You no longer have to pick between them.

With the change, Bare Bones is essentially replacing TextWrangler with BBEdit 11.6 — and likely subsequent versions — as the company's free-to-use product.

Customers can download the latest BBEdit iteration from the Bare Bones website and use the product for free for 30 days. After the trial period, users are limited to basic text and code editing functions, with advanced features and capabilities available through a single license purchase of $49.99.